Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) continues to deliver virtual theatre by announcing their “MTC Virtual Stage 2021” Programming.

This includes a variety of performances from choreography, new monologues, and works previously shown live on stage. The lineup includes Camille A. Brown, Charlayne Woodard, Octavia Chavez-Richmond, Ari Groover, Samantha Williams, Daryl Waters, Juel D. Lane, Richard Wesley, and Oz Scott.

In addition, MTC is currently accepting monologue submissions from high school students for the Student Monologue Challenge and selected monologue responses will air on Wednesdays beginning February 10.

Interested in learning more about the shows? We got you.

Ritual

Samantha Williams by Photographer Nathan Johnson

A spell for healing and transformation

Premiering February 1 through February 6

Ritual is a digital manifestation of magic and intention: starting on February 1, experience a five-day journey and guide to create your own personal spell for healing and transformation that culminates in a collective gathering and casting of energy at precisely 2:06p on 2/06.

Please Welcome Our Guest

A personality test / performance piece

Liza Birkenmeier, a playwright without a personality, gives you a personality assessment. With the help of a surprise guest star and an experimental survey, maybe she’ll guide you toward a better understanding of your unique self.

Camille A. Brown by Josefina Santos

Camille A. Brown

A glimpse behind the curtain

A rare and intimate look inside the mind and creative process of this superstar director and choreographer as she prepares for her re-envisioned production of the landmark musical Ain’t Misbehavin’ (an upcoming co-production between Barrington Stage Company and Westport Country Playhouse).

Untitled Vampire Cowboys Project

An original treat for pop culture nerds everywhere

Vampire Cowboys, New York’s favorite “geek theatre” company, takes you on an up close and personal rollicking ride through the life of the notorious Julie D’Aubigny: the queer, 17th-century, opera-singing adventurer from their hit show, Revenge Song.

Juel D. Lane by Matt Karas

The Past Is The Past

The scene is a pool hall, where a man in his mid-40s shoots a solitary game until a college student

he has never met challenges him to play. As their game goes on, it becomes clear that the men recognize each other and have a deep connection. While the truth emerges, so does the fact that the past must remain just that.

Three Days Of Rain

Set in New York, Three Days of Rain finds siblings Nan and Walker reconnecting with their childhood friend Pip when they come home to settle their father’s estate. The discovery of a diary brings us back in time to their parents’ lives in the 1960s and to the truth of the legacy that connects the generations.

Charlayne Woodard

Neat

Charlayne Woodard returns to MTC to perform her magical, compelling, and inspiring portrait of a young woman’s coming of age, and her realization that some of life’s most difficult times can also be the most fulfilling.

Beauty Of The Father

Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz’ passionate and lyrical love triangle explores the conflict between

Octavia Chavez-Richmond by Jessica Osber

love and sacrifice. Set in Andalusia, Spain, where the restless ghost of Federico Garcia Lorca still wanders through the streets, The Beauty of the Father is the story of a young American girl who travels abroad to meet her estranged father and risks their reconciliation when she becomes romantically entangled with his companion

“Student Monologue Challenge: Wave 3”

MTC Education continues the Student Monologue Challenge as a way to offer high school students a platform to express what was on their minds and have begun accepting a second round of submissions for a new prompt – “You have no idea…” Selected monologue responses to the new prompt will air on Wednesdays beginning February 10.

Access the Student Monologue Challenge to submit before March 31, 2021.

“The Show Goes On”

Once a month, MTC will continue revisiting some of its greatest hits and rare gems, with production footage alongside new stories and commentary from original members of the cast and creative team.

For additional information, check out Manhattan Theatre Club.

The post Theatre Thrives On MTC’s Virtual Stage appeared first on Broadway Black.

Except the only thing that the MTC did not include this year were works written by  people of color. Their season’s writers include one woman out of the eight shows planned. But can we say that we are shocked?

Why does theater (like other media) have such a problem in terms of gender and race? Is it so hard to find quality female and playwrights of color? Much of it probably has to do with the history of theatre. We are always taught that Shakespeare is the ideal playwright; he’s what we should all aspire to be. But this means that it will always be plays and musicals by white men that keep getting produced. Most of the revivals made are productions directed by white men because they were also written by white men. And since people keep going to see them, they will remake the same plays over and over, year after year, unless there are new works to give underrepresented groups a chance to be seen and heard.

You would think this history would be incentive to diversify the content, especially considering MTC’s artistic director, Lynne Meadow, is a woman.  Can you imagine the Classical Theatre of Harlem producing shows that weren’t written or directed by a single person of color?

After the MTC season was announced, the internet immediately responded with their disdain. That prompted Meadow to release a statement about the content; “I don’t deny the fact that this season is anomalous in terms of the percentages of diversity on our stages,” she stated. “It’s just how the season came together.” Interesting.

However, the diversity issue isn’t lost on MTC. In the past decade, Manhattan Theater Club has had five seasons, including last year, when at least half of the plays had a female playwright. Over the last four seasons, Ms. Meadow said, 43 percent of playwrights and directors at the company were women and minorities. Of its 49 commissions in the past four years, she said, 28 went to women and minorities.

So what happened this year? Where race and equality have been at the forefront of issues facing this country, the Manhattan Theatre Club should have chosen to diversify its content and not ignore the issue.

The post The Lack Of Diversity In Theatre Seasons Are Not Going Unnoticed appeared first on Broadway Black.